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Drug companies and pharmacies donated nearly $600,000 to the B.C. Liberals over the past eight years — almost 14 times more than what was given to the NDP.

The Sun analyzed political donations between 2005 and 2012 and, while the tally may not be exhaustive, found drug companies, pharmaceutical organizations and pharmacies donated $582,549 to the Liberals and $41,850 to the NDP.

And many of those big Liberal donors — including Pfizer and Merck — are among the most active lobbyists who meet with politicians to speak about policy decisions.

What influence these multinational drug companies may or may not have had over past provincial governments has been raised during the election campaign.

The NDP made this a campaign issue when it vowed to renew funding for the Therapeutics Initiative, a well-regarded drug-review agency that was shelved by the Liberals.

In an interview with The Sun on Tuesday, NDP Leader Adrian Dix said the independent agency was necessary to test drug safety, free of any influence from deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies.

The governing Liberals cut off the Therapeutics Initiative’s access to key health data as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged inappropriate sharing of B.C. health records, which has so far led to the termination of seven Ministry of Health employees.

Five of the people affected by the scandal are suing the province, and one claims big pharmaceutical companies have donated generously to the Liberals and influenced the government’s drug policy decisions. The allegations have not been proven in court.

Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has insisted she is not aware of drug companies playing any role in the data-sharing investigation or the funding for the Therapeutics Initiative.

“There has been no evidence at all in any of the investigations that the pharmaceutical industry had any role in the data breach or in the subsequent actions of the government,” she said in an email Wednesday.

Donations like these are why the NDP has pledged, if elected, to ban all corporate and union political donations, said health critic Mike Farnworth.

“When you see these kinds of numbers and the decisions made by government, it raises questions,” he said. “Because it’s just as much perception as reality, particularly in the case of the Therapeutics Initiative.”

Donations by pharmaceutical companies, however, are by far not the largest received by political parties in B.C. For example, over those eight years, the Liberals got $1.7 million from mining giant Teck Resources and $822,814 from the New Car Dealers Association of B.C. The NDP collected $1.4 million from the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union and $1.2 million from the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

In past interviews with The Sun, those organizations say they were just supporting the political process with the donations, not looking for favours.

In an email to The Sun Wednesday, Pfizer Canada spokesman Vincent Lamoureux did not answer a question about whether the drug company has ever raised concerns with the government about the Therapeutics Initiative, which has long been a thorn in the side of drug companies.

Lamoureux, though, said Pfizer follows all rules when supporting political parties, and works with governments to “expand innovation and access to reliable and affordable health care.”

Pfizer has given $39,427 to the Liberals since 2005, and only $645 to the NDP, according to The Sun’s research. It is also an active lobbyist, indicating in the lobbyist registry it meets with health ministry staff to discuss Pfizer products being included in PharmaCare.

One of the seven fired health ministry workers, PhD student Roderick MacIsaac, was testing Pfizer’s smoking cessation drug Champix, which has been linked to health concerns and banned in some countries. MacIsaac was terminated three days before completing his contract with the government, and was found dead in December. The coroner is investigating his cause of death.

Two pharmaceutical-related businesses — Merck and Rx&D — were the 10th and 11th most active of the 376 organizations registered as of April 1 to lobby the provincial government.

Merck said it intended to contact government officials 178 times, with Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid being the top target, and wanted to “provide perspectives on policy changes which may impact access to innovative medicines,” according to the lobbyist registry. Merck Canada did not respond to an interview request by The Sun.

Rx&D — a lobby group that represents Canada’s largest pharmaceutical companies — intended 177 contacts with the government, with a focus on Premier Christy Clark.

Alan Cassels, a drug policy researcher at the University of Victoria, analyzed the political donations by pharmacies and drug companies as well and came up with similar numbers to The Sun’s.

While the drug companies have been donating to the Liberals for years, the first donation to the NDP was in 2010, Cassels found.

Cassels argues the firing of the seven ministry workers was mysterious, and that the Liberal government has undertaken a deliberate effort to sideline the Therapeutics Initiative.

“You only have to follow the money on that one. How much have they taken in campaign donations?” he said. “Most of the enterprise of drug policy research has ground to a halt in B.C.”

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B.C. Liberals a favourite of big pharma

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